Cabinet construction for office equipment



Oct. 10, 1967 R. T. PROULX CABINET CONSTRUCTION FOR OFFICE EQUIPMENTFiled July 12, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ROMEO T. PROULX Z v z W fwwo msvs R. T. PROULX Oct. 10, 1967 CABINET CONSTRUCTION FOR OFFICEEQUIPMENT I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 12, 1966 FIG. 3b

XNVENTOR ROMEO T. PROULX FIG. 30

Oct. 10, 1967 PRQULX 3,346,315

CABINET CONSTRUCTION FOR OFFICE EQUIPMENT Filed July 12, 1966 5SheetsSheet 3 INVENTOR ROMEO T. PROULX FIG. 3

BY f7 lfg k l fig 6 ATTORNEYS United States Patent F 3,346,315 CABINETCONSTRUCTION FOR OFFICE EQUIPMENT Romeo T. Proulx, Copiague, N .Y.,assignor toVISIrecord, Inc., Copiague, N.Y., a corporation of New YorkFiled July 12, 1966, Ser. No. 564,602 6 Claims. (Cl. 312-255) Thisinvention relates to the construction of metal fumiture, and morespecifically to the construction of a vertical filing system cabinet toafford a high degree of structural rigidity and ease of assembly in amanner that is compatible with modern concepts of office furnituredes1gn.

Present day design concepts require that office furniture be functional,simple, and streamlined. Certain types of office furniture, such asfiling cabinets, storage units, desks and cabinets for some ofiicemachines have surfaces composed predominantly of slab-like elements, andit is often diflicult to preserve the clean, unbroken lines sought bythe designer while assuring that the structure is sufiiciently rigid andstrong for its intended purpose. The problem is further compounded whenthe requirements of economical construction and easy assembly are addedto those of style and structural rigidity.

Although the present invention may be used in the construction ofvarious types of office furniture and equipment, I have found that it isparticularly useful in the construction of filing cabinets forvertical-visible filing systems. A vertical-visible filing system is onein which one or more trays or tubs in an open topped cabinet are dividedinto sections by means of a series of movable, upstanding main andintermediate dividers. The dividers ordinarily rest on the bottom of thetray and may be flipped back and forth to present file cards in thevarious sections to view. The cabinet is customarily supported on astand at a convenient working height, and the stand may be provided withcasters so that the unit is mobile.

Such file cabinets often contain 100 pounds or more of dividers and filecards. As the dividers are flipped to present different cards of thefile to view, the weight load shifts repeatedly, thus giving rise tostresses in the cabinet structure which will, if sufficient structuralrigidity is not provided, cause movement of the legs of the standrelative to the cabinet as well as distortion of the cabinet itself. Theresulting unsteadiness of the unit is highly undesirable and distractingto the operator. Additionally, as the unit is moved from place to place,stresses are set up which cause deformations of the various parts of aunit of conventional structural design. Thus, prior to the presentinvention, it has been extremely dilficult to engineer a filing cabinetwhich can rigidly sustain the static and dynamic loads imposed on suchcabinets in normal use unless the cabinet has been provided with morecross-bracing and structural re-enforcement than is compatible with thespare appearance of contemporary design requirements.

Most modern office cabinetry is constructed essentially of sheet metal,which is inherently flexible. Although rigidity of sheet metalstructures may be increased by using very heavy gauge materials, this isnot a practical solution to the problem of constructing structurallyrigid office furniture and equipment of contemporary design, for theheavier material increases the cost of manufacture, makes the equipmentheavier, and greatly complicates fabrication.

I have invented structural means for joining the legs to the cabinet ina certain manner such that an especially strong and rigid connectionresults which is sufficient to sustain the heavy static and dynamicloads imposed on cabinets used in vertical filing system. When thisnovel joint is utilized as described herein, a unit results which3,346,315 Patented Oct. 10, 1967 is strong, rigid, economical andcompatible with modern design requirements.

According to my invention, in a metal furniture construction having agenerally polyhedric working unit adapted to be supported above floorlevel by at least one leg member, I provided the improvement whichcomprises an assembly disposed at a first corner of said working unitand including a supporting leg having a cavity therein and formedwith asubstantially fiat strip portion extending along the corner. The stripportion has an exterior surface facing the interior of the working unit,an interior surface bounding at least a portion of the cavity, and alongitudinally extending slot providing access to the cavity. Thisassembly further includes a hearing surface on the working unit adjacentthe first corner and disposed to engage the leg along the exteriorsurface of the strip portion adjacent to the slot. In addition, stripportion engaging means is provided, fixed to the working unit adjacentthe bearing surface and having a hooksl'iaped portion constructed andarranged to extend through the slot to engage said interior surface.Additionally, means may be provided rigidly joining the leg to theworking unit for preventing relative axial rotation between the leg andthe working unit. A further bearing surface may be provided which isformed by an extension of one of the sides forming said corner and whichis disposed to contact the leg outwardly of the strip portion. Two ormore such assemblies may be provided at respective corners of theworking unit, and bracing means may be provided for rigidly joiningpairs of legs of such assemblies for preventing relative axial rotationbetween them. Thus, each leg is firmly held in position by means of theslot and the first and second bearing surfaces, while the cross bracesjoining pairs of legs, in conjunction with the further bearing surface,prevent rotation of the individual legs about their respective verticalaxes. A strong rigid construction results, which is simple andeconomical to manufacture and assemble. A particular embodiment of myinvention is described in the following. specification in the course ofwhich reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

In the -drawings- FIG. 1 is an exploded view, in perspective, of acabinet for a vertical-visible file system;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view showing in detail how the tilehousing is attached to the legs;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, partially exploded, of a vertical fileunit constructed according to this invention; and

FIGS. 3a and 3b are vertical cross sectional views of the end and frontpanels, respectively.

FIG. 1 shows a rectangular file cabinet 1 into which a card tray anddivider assembly 2 is set, and a pair of leg assemblies '3. Dividerassembly 2 may be of any of the types known to the art. Both the filehousing and the leg assemblies are preferably formed of sheet metal. Itis satisfactory to use .035 gauge sheet metal for the cabinet portionand .074 gauge sheet metal for the legs, although the gauge may bevaried according to the desired use, cost limitations, and otherconsiderations and is by no means critical.

The rectangular file housing may be formed in part initially as fourpieces; two sides 4, 4a and two end pieces- 5, 5a. These may be fastenedtogether by welding, for instance, at the tabs 6, or by any otherconvenient means.

As will be apparent from the detail of FIG. 2, at least the lowerportions of the sides 4, 4a which extend to form tabs 6, include bearingsurfaces 7 in the vicinity of each end of the housing. Each bearingsurface faces outwardly and toward the end of the housing nearest it.

These bearing surfaces may be formed by merely bending the sheet metalof the sides at the proper angle. A

perpendicular drawn through any bearing surface should point inwardlytoward the central region of the file housing, defined loosely as theregion of space about the geometrical center of the rectangular housing.The angle of these perpendiculars are not critical; however, if they lieparallel to the sides or ends of the housing rectangle, the overallstructural rigidity of the unit will be somewhat less than if, forexample, they bisect the corner angles, as will become clear later. Avertical wall 8 isfastened (preferably welded) to the side of thehousing adjacent each such bearing surface. Each wall is of hook-shapedcross section and forms a second bearing surface 9 parallel to thefirst-mentioned bearing surface.

Again referring to FIG. 1, the leg assemblies 3 each include a pair oflegs 10 rigidly joined together at their lower ends by a bracingcrosspiece ll. The legs as well as the crosspiece may be of rectangularcross section, and hollow. The crosspiece 11 may be welded to the legs.The

innermost side 12 of each leg, that is, the side facing the interior ofthe'housing unit, is provided with a slot 13 which extends downwardlyfrom the top of the inner side to some point such that the length of theslots ordinarily at least equal to the height of the hook-shaped member8.

The rectangular file housing is joined to the leg assemblies by slidingthe hook-shaped members 8 in each corner into their, respective slots 13provided in the legs 12, as i1- lnstrated in FIG. 2. It will be evidentthat this joint effectively prevents displacement of each leg in ahorizontal plane, and also prevents rotation in the clockwise directionabout a pivot point defined by slot 13 (see FIG. 2). In order tocompletely prevent rotational movement of the legs, each leg is joinedto another leg at their respective lower ends by the aforementionedcrossbraces 11, and in addition, the end walls 14 extend to form bearingsurfaces 15 which contact the legs outwardly of slots 13. In theembodiment illustrated, the bearing surface 15 is an extension of anouter'end panel 14, which is fastened to end member 5 as illustrated inFIG. 3a. In addition to outer end panels 14, FIG. 3 shows front and rearpanels 16 and 17 which are fastened to the sides 4, 4a of the housingfor structural reinforcement and for appearance. The front side panelassembly is illustrated in FIG. 3b.

The outer portions of the legs 10 may extend upwardly further than loadsurfaces 18 so that they reach approxi- .mately the level of the top ofthe file housing when the unit is assembled. A molding 19 is fastened tothe upper ends of these leg extensions; this molding also fits over thetop of the housing in order to hold the unit together. In addition, sidebrackets 20 and a rear bracket 20a may be fastened to the legs beneaththe file housing to support a drawer 21, which may be used foradditional storage of inactive file materials or of accessory items. Atop 22 is also provided in the embodiment shown, and is hinged to themolding at the rear of the unit.

An important feature of the present invention is the ease of assemblinga file unit constructed in accordance with it. File units are packed forshipment in a disas:

sembled state, since this greatly reduces shipping costs. It istherefore important that the unit be capable of assembly at distantpoints by untrained personnel. This entails minimizing the number ofparts and the number and complexity of fasteners required to hold theunit together.

It will be apparent from FIGS. 1 and 3 that this requirement will befully met by a file unit constructed in accordance with this invention.To assemble the file, one need only assemble divider unit 2 and fastenit in the housing, slide the leg assemblies 3 onto their associatedcorner joints at respective ends of the housing, fasten end and sidepanels 14, 16, 17, and screw down the molding placed over the housing toeach of the legs by means of screws 23. Assembly may then 'be completedby attaching side and rear brackets 20, 20a and the top 22. It will be v4 7 Still another advantage of the construction described herein is theuse of removable side and end panels 14, 16

V and 17, allowing replacement of these panels to change the colorscheme of the cabinet construction as desired.

Thus, a change in ofiice decor does not require purchase of new filingcabinets, but merely necessitates replacing the panels with others of adifferent color. Alternatively,

the original side panels may be removed, painted in a new I color andreplaced on the cabinet. 7

As will be clear from the embodiment illustrated, the constructiondescribed lends itself well to modern design requirements and provides astructurally rigid unit with a minimum of cross bracing. By directingthe long horizontal axis of each leg towardthe central region of theunit, rather than squaring the legs off with the corners of the housing,the effective width of the leg in each direction is increased, thusproviding increased resistance to deforfloor level by at least one legmember, the improvement 7 which comprises an assembly disposed atlafirst corner of said working unit and including (a) a supporting leghaving a cavity therein and formed with a substantially flat stripportion extending along said corner, said strip portion having (i) anexterior surface facing the interior of said 7 working unit,

(ii) an interior surface bounding at least a portion 3 of said cavity,and (iii) a longitudinally extending slot therein providing access tosaid cavity;

(b) a'bearing surface on said working unit adjacent said first comer anddisposed to engage said leg along the exterior surface of said stripportion adjacent to said slot; and t (c) strip portion engaging meansfixed to said working unit adjacent said bearing surface and having ahook-' shaped portion constructed and arranged to extend through saidslot to engage said interior surface; 2. In a metal furnitureconstruction as defined in claim 1, means rigidly joining the leg to theworking unit for preventing relative axial rotation between them.

'3. In a metal furniture construction as defined in claim 2, saidassembly including, as the means rigidly joining the leg to the workingunit, a molding fixed to the working unit and engaging the leg topreventrelative axial rotation between the leg and the Working unit. 7

- 4. In a metal furniture construction as defined in claim 1, a furtherbearing surface formed by an extension of one of the sides forming saidcorner and disposed to contact I the leg outwardly of said stripportion.

5. In a metal furniture construction as defined in claim 1, a secondassembly substantially identical to said assembly, disposed at a secondcorner of the working unit; and first bracing means rigidly joining thelegs of said assembly and said second assembly to prevent relative axialrotation between them.

. 6. In a metal furniture construction as defined in claim 5, said firstand second comers being adjacent corners and said' working unit havingfour sides, third and fourth assemblies substantially identical to thefirst and second as semblies disposed at third and fourth corners of theworking unit; and second bracing means rigidly joining the legs of thethird and fourth assemblies for preventing relative axial rotationbetween them. i

(References on following page) 5 6 References Cited 2,569,117 9/1951Schade 312-255 X 3,087,768 4/ 1963 Anderson et a1 312-257 UNITED STATESPATENTS 1,637,503 8/ 1927 Wege 312--255 DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, PrimaryExaminer. 2,141,954 12/ 1938 Jones 312 5 5 JAMES T. MCCALL, AssistantExaminer.

1. IN A METAL FURNITURE CONSTRUCTION HAVING A GENERALLY POLYHEDRICWORKING UNIT ADAPTED TO BE SUPPORTED ABOVE FLOOR LEVEL BY AT LEAST ONELEG MEMBER, THE IMPROVEMENT WHICH COMPRISES AN ASSEMBLY DISPOSED AT AFIRST CORNER OF SAID WORKING UNIT AND INCLUDING (A) A SUPPORTING LEGHAVING A CAVITY THEREIN AND FORMED WITH A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT STRIPPORTION EXTENDING ALONG SAID CORNER, SAID STRIP PORTION HAVING (1) ANEXTERIOR SURFACE FACING THE INTERIOR OF SAID WORKING UNIT, (II) ANINTERIOR SURFACE BOUNDING AT LEAST A PORTION OF SAID CAVITY, AND (III) ALONGITUDINALLY EXTENDING SLOT THEREIN PROVIDING ACCESS TO SAID CAVITY;(B) A BEARING SURFACE ON SAID WORKING UNIT ADJACENT SAID FIRST CORNERAND DISPOSED TO ENGAGE SAID LEG ALONG THE EXTERIOR SURFACE OF SAID STRIPPORTION ADJACENT TO SAID SLOT; AND (C) STRIP PORTION ENGAGING MEANSFIXED TO SAID WORKING UNIT ADJACENT SAID BEARING SURFACE AND HAVING AHOOKSHAPED PORTION CONSTRUCTED AND ARRANGED TO EXTEND THROUGH SAID SLOTTO ENGAGE SAID INTERIOR SURFACE.